The importance of fresh fruit and vegetables to a person's diet has become more and more recognized in the recent past. Health experts, including the American Cancer Society, recommend that an individual consume at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. However, surveys indicate that less than 20% of Americans satisfy those guidelines.
One problem consumers face in partaking of sufficient fruit is that fruit is fairly difficult to store and display. The best place to store fruit is in a refrigerator, but fruit stored in the main area of a refrigerator is usually chilled more than is preferable. Accordingly, most fruit is stored in a produce drawer in the refrigerator. This still allows the possibility of too cold fruit, while creating a much greater probability that the fruit will be forgotten and become spoiled.
To avoid the problem of rotten fruit in a refrigerator drawer, many people choose to store and display their fruit in an open bowl. The bowl allows easy access to the fruit, but, since there is no refrigerated environment, it also shortens the storage life of the fruit.
There is no device in the current art that provides for both refrigeration and display. While there are many devices in the prior art relative to refrigerated storage, none of these devices makes a provision for viewing the contents of the storage device.
Further, the current art refrigeration devices require external power supplies, greatly reducing their mobility and flexibility of use.